The Rumors of an Apple Car Refuse to Die, Thanks to New Documents From California

For a few years now, there have been rumors floating around both the tech and auto industries that computer/tablet/smartphone giants Apple have been secretly working on developing a car. The iCar, if you will.

Although Apple has never officially announced anything regarding the project, the evidence has been there. They reportedly hired hundreds of people to work on “Project Titan,” which was apparently going to compete with the likes of Tesla and Google when it came to self-driving vehicles (and the software they use). They even hired Dan Dodge, the former founder and CEO of QNX, a company that specialized in making operating systems for vehicles.

However, in the second half of 2016, Bloomberg reported the majority of Apple employees working on Project Titan had either been reassigned or fired completely. The Apple Car was dead. Maybe.

Last week, the State of California announced that Apple (along with many other companies) had secured a permit for testing autonomous driving technologies on public roads. This permit is one of the first real pieces of evidence that Apple is working on some sort of self-driving hardware and/or software.

Speculation is that Apple may have scrapped their plans to actually manufacture an entire automobile, but instead have shifted their focus on developing the software needed to make a truly amazing self-driving vehicle, which they would then license out to other carmakers. So instead of buying the iCar, you might soon find yourself shopping for a Ford Mustang or Honda Civic, “driven by Apple.”